Bored at Work?

Once in a while, you can expect to need a little extra effort to roll out of bed and into the morning commute. If that’s a daily occurrence, maybe something is wrong.

Are you stuck doing the same things over and over? Some uninspired pencil pushing? Or pressing on a keyboard?

Do you daydream through mandatory meetings that don’t really need you to be there?

Do you get tired of answering all of these questions?

Okay, sorry about that. It think you get the point. Sometimes the things you have to do to get by are not that exciting. You still have to do them, or something like them. Keeping a steady job has a value to it — the paycheck, to be literal.

After years of playing it safe, maybe you have found yourself a little bit stuck. The routine is not so bad. It’s just not what you imagined you’d be doing when you were a kid.

I have been lucky in my career. Then again, I have also had a low tolerance for boring, repetitive, “safe” work. My favorite move has been to join a start-up, or begin one of my own, and see how it goes.

There’s one thing that start-ups are not, and that’s boring. There’s another thing that they’re not, and that’s safe. Or stable. So I spent many years bouncing from one to the next. For me, it was fun and exciting.

I am certain it would scare the pants off of most normal people. I am not judging, just saying that my tastes may be a little on the risky side when it comes to working.

Anyone who has been following this blog knows that I left the safety of my long-time employer, Guidewire, in December. It was a great run of 11 years, and it got waaaaay too safe for my tastes.

That’s just how big companies are because they have to be or they would go out of business.

Guidewire is doing really well, at the opposite end of the “going out of business” spectrum. For that, I am grateful. Their continued success is funding my start-up, albeit indirectly.

(I own stock that I earned while I worked there. Just spelling it out in case anyone missed it. Sometime start-ups pay off in more ways than job satisfaction.)

So here I am, at it again, at the cusp of launching a new start-up. You might think that I already have with StoryTime and this blog. However, until now, I have been taking it easy, not worrying too much about how this is going to pay the bills and put my kids through college.

Now it’s time to get serious.

For the past few weeks I have been working on a course called Design a Game. It’s for anyone who wants to break free of the doldrums at their regular job. Rather than give up the safety and comfort of the steady paycheck, sign up for my course, and put that spare time to good use. Start of a hobby creating games. I’ll show you how.

Anyone interested? If you want to learn more about it, check out this page. You’ll find everything you’d want to know about the course to get started living the dream of being a game designer.

It’s for beginners. Everyone has to start somewhere.

And it’s also my big start at creating courses and helping people get more out of life, without the risk.